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Currently reading anything by a British writer?
Netflix has That Hamilton Woman. I saw it two years ago. It's excellent.
Thanks, Anne. I didn't know it was at Netflix.
Yes, seen the movie and I do agree. I have read other biogoraphies on her, but ( of course I'm biased as I love NL so much) I like this one far the best.There is a scene in it, which NL uses to good dramatic effect in two novels; it is when Emma takes the new born Horatia to her carer, concealed inside one of the the huge muffs of the day. The fact that it is within a week of the baby's birth and Emma is up and about doing it herself, convinces everybody that it cannot be her baby as she would be in bed for a month if it were.
For NL afficionados - she uses the muff idea in Day of the Butterfly and the 'it can't be hers, she wouldn't be able to do that" in The Old Priory.
I was given a Kindle for Christmas and amongst other things have downloaded ( for free, yay) all of Jane Austen.Currently I'm re-reading Sense and Sensibility. I woudl like to put in a bid for Marianne Dashwood to be considered as THE most annoying person in British Fiction. Those transports of delight over leafless trees, the astonishment at anybody else's feeling differently to her , the agonies of unrestrained grief.......
Any advances on Marianne ?
I hear you, Barbara; but in her defense, Marianne does eventually acquire some of the titular "sense" to modify her overblown "sensibility." Like many fictional characters, she's a work in progress, changing and growing rather than remaining static.One of these days, I've got to get around to reading the parts of the Austen canon that I've missed so far! (The library where I work has all of her completed novels, so they're readily available.)
Wow, it's been quite awhile since I read anything by a British writer; but I've just started Jamaica Inn by Daphne Du Maurier. This one has been on my to-read list (at least mentally; to my surprise, I discovered I'd forgotten to list it on the written one here on Goodreads!) for years, but seeing the miniseries adaptation starring Jane Seymour and Patrick McGoohan awhile back whetted my curiosity even more. This will be my first introduction to Du Maurier's work.
I've just read Margaret Forster's biography of Daphne du Maurier . A great book but then but anything by MF always is. Du Maurier was a fairly awful person, which always makes for good biographical read too. She was married to General 'Boy' Browing, he who actually said the "bridge too far" for which the Bogarde film was named. I'd be interested to hear your views on du Maurier Werner or anybody. I loved Rebecca of course and My Cousin Rachel and ( IIRC) Jamaica Inn.
If you have lots on your TBR shelf though, don't waste your precious time on Rule Brittania , possibly the worst/silliest book ever written. Or The Loving Spirit.
Barbara, thanks for the tip! I hadn't heard of either of those Du Maurier books before; but if I ever run across them, I'll consider myself warned. :-) Yes, I've got LOTS on the TBR shelf, so I'm not really looking very hard for additions to it at this point!I'll try to remember to post a link to my review here when I finish the book.
.The Picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar WildeI just finished this book that I should have read years ago but somehow never got around to it. It is a fiction classic and a film was made of it which I have seen several times. To be honest, although the story is fascinating, the characters constantly spoke in epigrams and witticims which began to annoy me. I realize that Wilde is known for his wit but this book reminded me of a listing of every clever thing that Wilde ever uttered. That aside, the story is an amazing look at the life of a dissolute young man who remains ever young and beautiful while all his sins are transferred to his portrait. Eerie and satisying.
Jill, I really liked The Picture of Dorian Gray, too --though I'll agree that you've got a point about Wilde's witticisms! :-)
Hi Werner -- haven't spoken to you for awhile, but am still appreciating your various reviews and comments. I have read Jamaica Inn and will be interested to read your comments. My two favorites by her are Rebecca and a short story collection, The Breaking Point.
Thanks, Bruce; I always appreciate your insightful reviews and comments, too! I expect to finish this one closer to the end of the month, and usually try to write reviews here soon after I finish a book, so that it's fresh in my mind.Both Rebecca and The House on the Strand are on my to-read shelf. When I'll get around to either of them is anybody's guess, though!
Right now, I'm reading Great English Short Stories, which by definition are written by British writers (indeed, by quite a lot of them; the list of contributors is practically a roll-call of both notable and not so-notable figures in British literature up into the 1930s). This is a book I've been dipping into at intervals ever since I discovered it here in the BC library after I started working there in 1992, and now I've resolved to finish reading it!
They Call Me Naughty Lola: Personal Ads from the London Review of Books by David RoseHere is something different for the lover of all things British. This is a little book to keep in the car or by the breakfast table.....short and no story line to keep track of when you have time lapses in reading it. It is a collection of personal ads from the London Review of Books.....and it is quite humorous. Written by well-read and witty people, these ads are tongue-in-cheek and keep you on your toes figuring out some of the literary allusions. Some are downright insane and will cause you to laugh out loud. One of my many favorites is: "My favorite woman is a man. Sorry, Mother". Great fun indeed.
I just finished Jane Eyre again. I love it. Now I'm reading, "The Moonstone," by Wilkie Collins. I've also read, "The Woman in White," and I love his style of writing. It's like he's talking to each of us individually while he's telling the story. He was BFF's with Charles Dickens. What fun!
Werner wrote: "Thanks, Jill and Gail. Yes, Australia is a lovely, beautiful country, with warm and friendly people. Our oldest daughter (now an Aussie citizen) married an Australian guy, so we have a family conn..."That is so interesting. My husband has relatives there that he has never met. His mother was from Belfast, Ireland and two Uncles moved to Australia. It would be a wonderful place to visit.
Yes, Carol, Australia is a wonderful place to visit!
Would you want to live there?
Good question, Carol! Truth to tell, I'm too attached to my American roots (and the majority of my family, who are here in the U.S.) to really want to move to any other country. (Perhaps some of that is the natural tendency of older people to be sedentary; I'll turn 60 this month.) And I love Appalachia, too --its scenery, heritage, and people. (I wasn't raised here, but I got here as quickly as I could! :-) ). But if I HAD to move abroad, Australia would be my second choice.
I think America could learn a lot from some things in Australia. One of my daughter's best friends from college is from Australia (well actually a couple were). She married a young man here and they both moved back to Australia. He had great difficulty getting permission. Australia doesn't allow you permanent status unless you bring something to the country. Most countries in the world do that. They are there and happy now. My daughter would love to visit (they keep inviting her) but a round trip is a couple of thousand dollars just for travel. LOL
I emigrated here ( Australia ) from the UK years ago as a young woman. I went travelling and back to the UK and thus was away a couple of years. When I applied for my return visa, they basically said , 'no , I'm sure you are very nice,but you've got nothing we really need'Eventually they relented - proabably because of historical links with the UK - and the very first thing I did was to rush to the immigration dept and take out Australian citizenship, and the next thing was to enroll for a degree..........
My daughter was able to emigrate because she'd married an Aussie guy, and had just gotten a college degree in psychology, which of course made her more employable than she'd have been without one. She now has dual citizenship --both Australian and U.S.
Best of both worlds, lovely ! Me too, English and Australian .
John Sutherland, the author of the book I've just begun reading, How to Read a Novel: A User's Guide, is British. He's a former professor of modern English literature at University College in London, a columnist for the Manchester Guardian, and was the chair of the selection committee for the Man Booker Prize in 2005.
Anglo-Irish writer Joseph Sheridan Le Fanu was a major figure in shaping the classic ghost story tradition, and his works remain genre favorites today. Right now, I'm reading Best Ghost Stories of J. S. Le Fanu, as I wait for next month to start a group (actually a double-group) read of Afternoon of an Autocrat by another British writer, Norah Lofts.
I just finished what is purportedly the final book in the John Rebus series, Exit Music by Ian Rankin. I really like this series of police procedurals and hope that maybe, just maybe, the author will change his mind. The ending does leave things a bit up in the air which might indicate that he left himself an opening to write another.I am just finishing a very fine little book about the sinking of the Royal Oak (I love British military history). Found it in a book sale and it is fascinating. Last Dawn: The Royal Oak Tragedy At Scapa Flow by David Turner
I am currently reading Rebecca by Daphne Du Maurier. I had heard so much about this author and wanted to check this book out.
Ann wrote: "I am currently reading Rebecca by Daphne Du Maurier. I had heard so much about this author and wanted to check this book out."Rebecca has one of the most quoted first sentences in fiction (besides Moby-Dick)....."Last night I dreamt I went to Manderley again" It is a great book but it has one odd thing about it.....the heroine is never identified by her name.
I have always thought that the nameless heroine device was really rather clever, the eponymous Rebecca looming so large and the current wife so little as it were. For me, the odd thing about it was that the 'hero' Maxim allowed his poor little nameless one to go on believing as she did about Rebecca ( won't say more for fear of spoilers)
Rebecca is far and away Du Mauriers best novel I think.
Her name was Carol Burnett...
October's come, so I've got a good start on Loft's Afternoon of an Autocrat (British title, The Devil in Clevely). Actually, I began reading it on Sept. 29. :-)
Correction to the above: Afternoon of an Autocrat was the original title of Loft's novel, both in England and the U.S. (The Devil in Clevely was a later publisher's title for a reprint.) It was a great read by any title, however!Now, one of my Goodreads friends and I have started our long-awaited buddy read of The Skin Map by Stephen Lawhead, whom I've mentioned on this thread before. It's the opening volume of his Bright Empires series.
I just read that. I'll be interested in what you think. I haven't gone on with the series yet.
Mike (the Paladin) wrote: "Her name was Carol Burnett..."Que? As Manuel in Fawllty Towers would say...
sorry Mike, I'm missing the point who is Carol Burnett ( re this thread) ?
You need to go back a few years...Google her name. She was a comic who started in TV in the 1950s. She was in movies and on Broadway. She and Julie Andrews are good friends and have several things together.From 1967 to 1978 she had a variety TV series that was, to say the least hilarious. One of the the things she did was parody famous movies. Some of these skits are still famous (the Gone with the Wind bit is classic). She also did one of Rebecca(Rebecky) that made sides ache. Some of them may be on line.
Mike, I didn't get the joke when you first posted it either (and I watched the series regularly!), but your explanation made the memory of that skit click into place. Yes, that one was a scream, as was the Gone with the Wind one. :-)
As was the case with Stephen Lawhead's King Raven trilogy, my friend Jackie and I both liked the first book of his Bright Empires trilogy well enough (though the King Raven trilogy is superior) that we're continuing our buddy read to include the other two volumes. (We were encouraged in that by the many loose ends and cliffhanger ending of the first book!) So, I've now started on the second one, The Bone House.
I've just read Morvern Callar by Alan Warner .. http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/89... .. not sure I liked it though it was strangely compelling.. has anyone else read this?
Moi, I've never read any of Alan Warner's work myself. Sorry I can't compare notes on it with you!Jackie and I have now moved on to the third book, The Spirit Well, of the Bright Empires series (which turns out not to be a trilogy after all; series author Lawhead plans it to have five books, with the next one scheduled for publication in 2013). As you can tell, these books tend to be pretty fast reads!
I'm reading "The Glass of Time" by Michael Cox, so far enjoying it a lot. All of the major characters are pretty eerie. It is a good Victorian mystery, very dark. I read his "The Meaning of Night" a few years ago, it helps to have read it first.
This month, I'm taking part in our group's common read of Murder on the Orient Express. I know some other group members are reading (or have recently read) the alternate selection, Fated by Benedict Jacka, as well.
It's been awhile since I've happened to read anything by a British writer. But today, I've just started a reread of The Great Divorce, by one of my favorite English authors, C. S. Lewis. I'd read it some twenty years ago; but another of my groups is doing it as a common read this month, and I found that I didn't remember it well enough to discuss it intelligently without a reread.
Just started "Wedding Girl" by Sophie Kinsella. Love British Chic lit!!
Anne Marie, I'd heard of Sophie Kinsella, but had no idea she was British! I learn something new every day.
She's one of the best in her genre.
Sophie also writes under her real name, Madeleine Wickham. She's from London.
Fans of British Writers
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Emma Hamilton!!!! I have not read the Norah Lofts book but read a biography of Lord Nelson in which she was profiled. I find her life fascinating and tragic. If you really want to bring out the hankies, watch the British film, That Hamilton Woman starring that impossibly beautiful couple, Laurence Olivier and his wife Vivian Leigh. It's a dandy but is not easy to find.